Haskayne’s Jess Chua acknowledged for his research in family business and entrepreneurship in the past decade

As we entered a new decade, many reflected on the past 10 years. Dr. Jess Chua, PhD, professor emeritus of finance and family business governance in the Haskayne School of Business, added another accomplishment as he started 2020. He made the Web of Science list of highly cited researchers in the world for the past 10 years (2008-2018) in the category of Economics and Business. He is one of nine University of Calgary researchers included on the list.

“We are so proud of Jess’s work and the difference he is making in his field. We extend congratulations on this great accomplishment,” Dr. Yrjo Koskinen, associate dean research and professor of finance at the Haskayne School of Business. “To have a Haskayne professor recognized as a most cited researcher is a great honour — only four Canada-based researchers made the list in business and economics. We are continuing to create an environment at our business school where our team contributes to knowledge that influences the practice of management.”

Top one per cent ranked

The list, produced by the Web of Science Group, identifies natural and social scientists who produced multiple papers ranking in the top one per cent by citations for their field and year of publication, demonstrating significant research influence among their peers.

Chua began studying family business and entrepreneurship in the 1990s. His research has helped to establish how and why family firms, the most ubiquitous form of business organizations, are different than firms without family involvement in goals, resources and governance styles. According to Google Scholar, citations of Chua’s work have been increasing, reaching over 2,000 times per year in the past four years.

“Business scholars ignored family firms during the mid-20^th century because they believed that family firms would disappear and be replaced by the publicly-held corporations. This has clearly not happened,” says Chua. “My interest in understanding family firms extends beyond intellectual curiosity. I believe that our democracies need successful family firms because people with financial independence are more likely to feel secure in publicly expressing their opinions about our society.”

He also won the 2018 Greif Research Impact Award for the most impactful entrepreneurship articles since publication five years ago. This paper examined why firms pursue family-centred non-economic goals.

Nine UCalgary scholars recognized

This year the list includes 6,217 Highly Cited Researchers in various fields from nearly 60 nations. In Canada, 183 researchers made the list.

“Citations are an important measure of scholarly impact that demonstrate how our researchers are leading the creation of valuable new knowledge in their fields,” says Dr. Andre Buret, PhD, interim vice-president (research). “We are proud of our scholars and congratulate them on this accomplishment.”

The other University of Calgary scholars on the list are:

• Dr. Glenda MacQueen, MD, Cumming School of Medicine
• Dr. Herman Barkema, PhD, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
• Dr. Jean Addington, PhD, Cumming School of Medicine
• Dr. Johann Pitout, MD, Cumming School of Medicine
• Dr.Marcello Tonelli, MD, Cumming School of Medicine
• Dr. Mayank Goyal, MD, Cumming School of Medicine
• Dr. Michael Hill, MD, Cumming School of Medicine
• Dr. Paul Kubes, PhD, Cumming School of Medicine

Pam Hyde, Office of the Vice-President (Research), contributed to this article.